I was playing a new character when i decided to give my original character a try.Now to set the scene and give some details, i had been playing Assassin's Creed Revelations prior to Skyrim and had absolutely no issues whatsoever and also had no issues on my recent Skyrim character which i was playing immidiately before trying my old character.My PS3 is a 2 month old 320 GB slim, it sits on a cooling stand on it's own little table with lots of free space all around it and is dusted daily including the vents. I keep all my systems, including my PS3, in impeccable condition and take great care with my discs. In total i own around 85-90 PS3 games and for the record have experienced nothing with any of them that compares even remotely with the issues i've had with Skyrim, with the exception of Fallout 3/NV and Oblivion.After i loaded up my old character save file everything seemed to be ok at first. There was a little slow down here and there but nothing major.I had joined the Stormcloaks before abandoning this character and now decided to start the battle for Whiterun. As soon as i met up with the rest of the Stormcloaks there were issues straight away. The slowdown was a bit more pronunced, but not yet game breaking, the sound effects were'nt playing properly and one of the Stormcloak character models was glitching out, twitching and vibrating in place then suddenly shot straight up into the sky, fell back down and stopped just before hitting the ground, then launched itself clear across the valley in the direction of Whiterun, almost like one of the projectiles being thrown by the Catapults.After getting over the wtf? moment of the flying Stormcloak, i proceeded with the quest. After fighting my way to the gates of the town, i took a few seconds to arrange my favourites and switch from dual wielding a Blades Sword, which was improved to Legendary and Enchanted with Shock damage and Chillrend, also legendary, to some Destruction Spells, Thunderbolt in each hand.I also switched my Thieves Guild Armour to my Shrouded Armour, both upgraded to Legendary.I then attempted to enter Whiterun. The loading screen appeared and everything seemed ok but i soon realised that it was taking a long time to load. I decided to leave it for a few minutes to see if it would load however after 5 minutes i had to admit defeat and decided to restart the game. As i was getting no response from the Control Pad i held down the Power Button on the front of the PS3.The System went through it's forced power-down routine and after around 30 seconds i restarted it.The Console powered up fine and i restarted Skyrim and Reloaded the Save File i had been playing (my Original character).After again meeting the rest of the Stormcloaks, miuns the flying one this time, i began to fight my way to the gates once again.I had killed 3 Imperial Soldiers when all of a sudden the on screen action froze. The sound effects were still active though, almost as if the battle was still being played out, including the grunts of my character as he was hit and the sound of Lightning Bolts being fired.Then the PS3 started to make a strange vibrating sound. As soon as this happened, the image on the screen started to distort, the colours becoming strange, the sounds effects and music stuttering and crackling.I had been lying on the sofa but when the action froze i sat up. When the image distorted and the strange sounds started i jumped to my feet.I tried desperately for 2-3 seconds (a lifetime in such a situation) to try and quit the game via the controller but it would'nt respond so i then held down the Power Button on the front of the PS3 again to force quit.This time it did'nt work. In a panic i made to switch off the power to the PS3 at the socket but before i got to it there was an extremely high pitched wail, a foul smell of something burning then quite a loud bang.I had got to the wall socket by this time and flipped the switch. I just stood there with my head in my hands and was like "No, no, no, no..."My girlfriend had heard the noise and commotion and came in from the kitchen to see what was going on and when she asked i replied "I think my PS3 just exploded."She looked at me for a minute thinking i was joking but quickly realised i was'nt. She noticed the smell and asked what happened. I told her.I decided to leave everything for a few seconds as, to be honest, i really did'nt know what to do.After around 4-5 minutes i apprehensively flipped the switch at the socket. Half expecting it to explode completely i was relieved when it did'nt.I walked around to the front of the console and straight away noticed that the red Standby Light was blinking. I pressed the power button and my monitor flickered then some strange colours appeared for a fraction of a second then there was a very brief but quite loud pop, the monitor went dark and the PS3's red light resumed blinking.The strange burning smell got a little stronger.Now, i love Skyrim. I truely believe it is the best game i have played in a long time and one of the best games ever created.I also believe the multitude of performance issues in the PS3 version stressed my Console until it failed spectacularly.I have owned a PS3 since its launch day. I gave my original one away to a kid down the street (his mum and dad could'nt afford to buy him one and i was replacing mine with a newer model anyway...), my second one was stolen (i was at my gf's mums for a few days and had taken it along, while we were out a bunch of Heroin addicts broke in to the house and ransacked it) and after saving up for quite a while and buying this one, it is now broken and this time there is no way i will have the money to replace it for at least 3-4 months.I am devastated.I also have no doubts at all Skyrim was responsobile for my Consoles demise. It was'nt coincedence, it was'nt related to bad maintenence of the Console, It was the only game on the HDD at the time and every other game i own, minus the noted exceptions, had no problems like those Skyrim exhibited.The console was running perfectly right up untill Skyrim caused it to freeze.I have no idea what to do. Has anyone else experienced anything like this while playing Skyrim?I apologise about the size of the post, i just wanted to put across a clear picture of what happened.